Handy Helps for the Homemaker (Apr, 1940)

“HOT SEAT” FOR HOT DOGS
Frankfurters are electrocuted in the novel cooker illustrated above. Current flowing between forks cooks them

ELECTRIC BEAUTY CABINET
Electric appliances included in this boudoir cabinet are a hair curler, water heater, iron, drier, vibrator, clipper, razor, and radio

DEEP-FAT FRYING is made safe and pleasant by the pan below. It has an inner metal ring to prevent fat from boiling over, and a thermometer (left) that fits its edge
CANDLE KEEPS FOOD WARM. Foods to be kept warm are placed upon a perforated metal disk above a candle in this plastic container

GUTTERS ON RUBBER GLOVES. Bell-like cuffs on the rubber gloves at right are turned up to keep water from running down the arms

CURTAIN PINNER No more pricked fingers putting curtains on stretchers, if you use this handy rubber roller, which presses the curtains smoothly on the stretcher pins

SPILLPROOF JIGGER. For measuring ingredients of beverages, the jigger above rests on the edges of the glass. When filled, it is tipped over by turning one of the knobs, and there is no danger of spilling

CLOTHESLINE for use indoors has pins at ends for adjusting length, as seen below

KNIFE SHARPENER Screwed to the edge of a shelf or table top, this metal disk has a series of notches in its rim for sharpening knives, as illustrated

I wholeheartedly agree about the rubber gloves comment, but did anybody else find it odd that the description of the “Electric Beauty Cabinet” just blithely tossed “vibrator” into the list of appliances?

MikeBeversluis says: April 24, 200711:32 am

Wow. Not to mention the electric hot dog executioner or the table-top mounted knife sharpener.

Stannous says: April 24, 200712:08 pm

She does have a Wednesday Addams sort of look in her eye.
But the electric wiener execution device is scarier for me.
The beauty cabinet is totally cool and thanks Jim for pointing that out, I’d missed it.
I see a clock in the upper right corner but wonder what that is in the upper left. Any ideas?

Charlie says: April 24, 20071:04 pm

I had a friend in college who was very excited to show me how he could make a pickle glow in the dark. He took a power cord, stripped the ends of the wires, attached them to forks and put them in each side of the pickle. For a brief moment, just before the pickle caught fire and our dorm blacked out, it looked a lot like that hot dog cooker.

Stannous: you should check out Jim’s blog at http://dowhatnow.typepa… it’s friggen hilarious and I think you’d get a big kick out of it.

Blurgle says: April 24, 20078:46 pm

Jim Dunn: 50 years ago, women used vibrators on their faces. The vibration was thought to “exercise” the muscles and reduce the chance of wrinkles.

I can imagine slicing a divot out of my hips with that knife sharpener every morning.